Nobody planned for an abrupt mass migration of traditional college courses to the internet. But because of coronavirus, that’s where we are. Hundreds of thousands of students have been told to clear out their belongings and head home, many through the end of the semester. In nearly every case, colleges have said that instruction will […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Everybody Ready for the Big Migration to Online College? Actually, No
Teaching intelligence: how to take your classes online
When the novel coronavirus first hit Singapore in January, universities were two to three weeks into a new semester. As the number of cases climbed, university administrators grappled with challenging questions of protocol and pedagogy. Today Covid-19 knocks on doors worldwide, and universities everywhere face unprecedented challenges. One of the strategies embraced by many universities […] … learn more→
Lecturers need to stop trying to micromanage their students’ lives
The professor started the seminar with an instruction. If students wanted to succeed, they’d have to learn to think like her. She distributed a copy of a sonnet she had annotated: students would be required to annotate their sonnets in her way and turn them in throughout the course for credit. In the second week, […] … learn more→
The new coronavirus is hitting colleges and universities hard, but donors can help
Amid concerns about the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a rapidly growing number of colleges and universities are closing their classroom doors, forcing faculty to teach students online instead of in person. The risks posed by COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, are both dramatic and abstract. Without a vaccine, scientists can’t say how long it will last […] … learn more→
Pirate universities have stolen lecturers’ performers’ rights
As the latest wave of strikes at UK universities has unfolded over the past four weeks, the question has once again been raised of whether the impact on students – and, hence, the efficacy of the industrial action – could be minimised by simply showing them recordings of absent academics’ lectures from previous years. That […] … learn more→
Who is blind to the horror of N-words?
“The horror! The horror!” Rarely have so few words done so much for so many academics. Uttered by the dying ivory trader Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness, interpretations range from the political to the psychological, metaphysical and autobiographical. The hermeneutic jungle is as dense as the one the story’s narrator, Marlow, […] … learn more→
Coronavirus: universities are shifting classes online – but it’s not as easy as it sounds
In response to the novel coronavirus, many South Korean universities have moved their teaching online. Students are still provided with the required number of class hours but without face-to-face contact with teachers. The ministry of education in the UAE has announced that university teaching will move online. In Italy, the government has ordered the closure of all universities until March […] … learn more→
Studying one uni subject in four weeks has benefits – but students risk burnout if it’s not done right
For the past two years, Melbourne’s Victoria University has been delivering its bachelor degrees using a block model, where students study one unit at a time rather than four units at once. Each unit, or block, is four weeks long and the study year is broken into ten blocks – four in each semester and optional […] … learn more→
Mock REFs need a neutral referee
If you work at a UK university, your department will currently be using some form of internal review to identify which of your recent papers should be submitted to the research excellence framework later this year. Unlike some, I don’t have any visceral objection to the REF. Good performance measures generate incentives that motivate staff […] … learn more→
Universities need to look outwards: their local economic and social impact really matters
The idea that universities should look outwards, and locally, is a key component of the modern university. But one that is often downplayed or even ignored. The Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto contained a rather surprising but welcome reference to the link between universities and the prosperity of local towns and communities. It said “we will work […] … learn more→
